Round Up: Etrian Odyssey, Jessica Simpson, MTV VMAs

Today's Gamasutra round-up includes news of Etrian Odyssey being localized by Atlus USA, Jessica Simpson being picked as the Xbox Live Artist of the Month, and Marc Ecko's Getting Up and Oblivion recognized by the MTV Video Music Awards, as well as the latest GameSetWatch posts, Serious Games Source news, and Gamasutra job postings. - Atlus USA has announced that it has acquired the North America publishing rights to Etrian Odyssey for the Nintendo DS. Known as Sekaiju no Meikyuu in Japan, the dungeon crawl style role-playing game features a considerable development staff, including Kazuya Niinou (Trauma Center: Under the Knife) as its director, with story design by Shigeo Komori (Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner) and sound design by Yuzo Koshiro (Actraiser, Streets of Rage). Etrian Odyssey is currently scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2007. “This game revitalizes the classic spirit of exploration and adventure for a new platform and a new audience,” said project lead Nich Maragos. “The hand-drawn map feature along with the lush graphics will make gamers want to get lost in the striking forest world of Etria.” - Microsoft announced that it has picked singer Jessica Simpson as its Xbox Live Artist of the Month for September. Xbox Live members can download a free version of Simpson’s music video and title track, “A Public Affair,” which is currently ranked #3 on MTV’s Total Request Live. Additional rewards for Xbox Live members include behind-the-scenes footage of the making of the video for “A Public Affair”, as well as an opportunity to win an Xbox 360 and a copy of Jessica’s new CD. Previous Xbox Live Artists of the Month include Audioslave, Cartel, Matisyahu, The Fray and Natasha Bedingfield. - Representatives from MTV have announced the winners for two new video game-related categories as part of the music network's annual MTV Video Music Awards. The awards, which were announced during the live MTV Overdrive broadcast, represent the first time that game soundtracks have been included in the long running awards' line-up. The award for "Best Video Game Soundtrack" went to Atari for The Collective's Marc Ecko's Getting Up. Other nominees in the category included a pair of titles from Electronic Arts with Final Night Round 3 and Burnout Revenge, as well as 2K Games' NBA 2K6. Atari's recently divested Driver: Parallel Lines was also nominated for the award. Additionally, the award for "Best Video Game Score" went to Jeremy Soule for Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, beating out user-generated soundtracks created by Toshio Iwai's Electroplankton for the Nintendo DS, as well as Jesper Kyd for Hitman: Blood Money, Tom Salta for Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter, and Leon Willett for Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. - The latest updates on Gamasutra sister weblog GameSetWatch include a new electronic magazine about indie games, a look at tabletop game Twilight Imperium, and a new contest to celebrate Frogger's 25th Anniversary. - Also updated today: Serious Games Source news, including a new serious game aimed at train firefighters, plus the latest Gamasutra job postings, featuring openings from HumaNature Studios, Midway Games, Namco Networks America, Paradigm Entertainment, Relic Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and THQ.